Tire gauges

Comments

Just purchased a tiny digital gauge from Canadian Tire for $6 or so. It's called a "Tire Minder". I compared it to my Accugauge and they both indicate the same pressure. It fits on valve stems much easier than the Accugauge. A large gauge body can make use difficult. The "Tire Minder" is nice and small. It may not last very long as it is rather cheaply made, but at this price you can afford one for every glove box, bicycle, and lawnmower!

My accugauge appears to be accurate. I'm comparing to all other gauges I see, and the accugauge is supposed to be a sophisticated and accurate gauge. It got good reviews by those who test gauges (and posted in this forum). People need to chill out on this accuracy thing. If the gauge is out 10% (5% would be what I would expect with an electronic gauge) that is 3 PSI in 30 PSI. My tire pressure varies that much just from the heat of the sun. The electronic gauges could be out about 5% - I say this as this is "standard engineering accuracy". That would be 1.5 PSI in 30. That's pretty accurate. The rod type mechanical gauges can be out a lot more that that, because even a speck of dirt on the slider can stop it short of the true reading. I had one that got bent in my pocket! Imagine how inaccurate it was. Also the electronic gauges are more likely to be out the same over the full scale of pressures - for example 1 PSI high or low at any reasonable pressure it is designed to measure. The same cannot be said of mechanical gauges. The fact that the accugauge reads the same as the Tire Minder kind of gives confidence they are both close. That is, the chance they are both out the same amount is lower than the chance they are both accurate.

As long as you use the same gauge on the same vehicle and monitor the tire performance, you can adjust for gauge accuracy. eg - if you see the outside of the tread wearing faster than the centre (even on each side), then you are probably underinflating.

And my final word - What makes you think the vehicle/tire manufacturers pressure recommendations are the best for your use? We've already seen one case where there are questions to be raised!

I have the same Brookstone tire gauge, and it is almost as old. I am 99-44/100% sure that it is a rebranded G.H. Meiser Accu-Gage H60X (with the rubber guard). See link title

Brookstone still carries a similar model, also almost certainly a Meiser Accu-Gage: link title That one lacks the hose, but partially makes up for it by having a swivel chuck instead of the straight chuck of our model.

Nextech is just a Circuit City house brand. As noted elsewhere on this thread, Accutire is the brand of the Virginia importer of a Chinese line of tire gauges. Chances are the one you see at Circuit City with Circuit City's house brand is identical. Similarly, Monkey Grip is a line of Chinese-made tire gauges you can buy at many auto parts shops, but go to an Ace hardware store, and you will find identical tire gauges there under the Ace brand: the two are identical except for the printing on the cardboard the bubble plastic is attached to.

Personally, I think digital gauges are more hype. I have a digital (highly rated). And I have a pencil gauge from the emergency kit of a '91 Taurus. They consistently read within a pound of each other. I like the pencil gauge better actually. It fits better over the valve and takes an instant reading. I can do two tires in the time it takes the digital to do one. Of course, it does not have a techie digital display

it's been a long time since anybody posted a gauge comment so i will share with you the truth about the gauge. accuracy of the gauge is secondary based on calibration variances. the real issue is that you own one and use it once a week.

Sorry Pathstar1 but as a tire engineer with 40 years experience in design & Quality I do not consider +/- 5% to be "standard engineering accuracy".

If you really knew how to measure tire pressure you would know that you are to measure "cold" and that does not include being warmed by the sun if you want to be accurate.

RE Stick type gauges I have measured a number and found some to be off by 25%. Depends on how much dirt has gotten into the works.

I do believe that in general digital gauges are likely to be more accurate than analog ones. The two digitals I use have been checked against an ISO calibrated master gauge and one was + 0.5psi and the other - 0.5psi.

Now If you check your tire inflation at least once a month and if you never run less than the minimum specified by the vehicle manufacturer you are probably OK. Of course that assumes the vehicle mfg did not specify an inflation that only has a 1 psi margin of safety.

Thanks. Very helpful. I was checking tire pressure on my wife's car yesterday and automatically grabbed the old stick gauge. 32 lbs in each tire. When i started the car back up, I cross-checked with the Impala's own built-in digital tire pressure checker. It read 35 lbs in each tire. A couple of years ago my wife bought me a Victor Talking Digital Tire Gauge. It's been in a toolbox in the barn ever since, and I forgot I had it. I think it is a V-871, but cannot find the directions. 'came with a nice leather case. When I found it and couldn't remember why I had not been using it, I pulled it out and pressed the button to turn it on -- nothing happened. Nothing on the LCD display. I brought it in the house to replace batteries. 5 tiny Phillips screws hold the back on. So, I decided research it a bit online. I found mention of digital gauges that have non-replaceable batteries. Not having access to directions I decided to not waste time until I found out if they are replaceable. This morning, I pressed the red power button one more time and the LCD display came on. Can you suggest a place to download directions for this thing? Who owns Victor? Do they have a website with customer support?